Be Careful What You Measure

By Peter DeHaan

April 9, 2008

It's been said that "What gets measured, gets done -- and what gets paid for gets done more."  So it is in the call center.  Since call centers produce reams of statistical measurements on everything an agent does, it seems that much should be accomplished.  Furthermore, when we tie performance pay and productivity incentives to these stats, then the expectation becomes that we will experience an even greater productivity boost.

Often, this is exactly what transpires.  As agents witness management consistently measuring and reporting metrics -- such as average time to answer, average handle time, and calls per hour -- they become aware that these measurements are important, realize why they are significant, and respond with attentive improvements.  Some agents are further motivated to more diligent effort when they see a corresponding bump in their paycheck.

However, this can be taken to extreme excesses as agents unreasonably push themselves for unparalleled statistical accomplishment.  For this reason, many call centers with pay-for-performance incentives, balance productivity (stats) with quality measurements.  Others emphasize quality performance.

The dark side of tracking, reporting, and paying for statistical success can be seen when agents perceive the numbers as their sole, end goal; they lose sight of the meaning and reasons behind the data.  At this point, their job ceases to be about providing quality customer service and is reduced to hitting numerical targets in order to win the praise and attention of superiors or grow the size of their paychecks.

I have witnessed all manifestations of this type of excess.  Agents can become very creative in discovering ways to work the system to their advantage.  This might be changing their workflow to achieve improved metrics at the expense of overall efficiency.  Alternatively, they may find workaround strategies, discover techniques to manipulate the tracking, or merely cheat by taking shortcuts.

I was recently reminded of this on an industry list serve, when one member stumbled upon and shared a news report of CSRs being fired for hanging up on callers in order to improve their stats.  The agents had lost all comprehension that they were there to service callers and became fixated on achieving better statistical performance.  In order to improve their calls answered per hour and decrease their average handle time, they were routinely hanging up on half of the calls they answered.  One terminated agent claimed that this was a common practice among the staff at the call center.

Many others on the list serve chimed in with their own stories.  Like the CSRs in the news, some misguided agents were merely answering calls and then hanging up.  Others would answer and then press the mute button on their headset, waiting for the caller to disconnect.  One manager reported discovering an agent who would rapidly toggle her mute button while talking in order to produce unintelligible audio thereby causing the caller to hang-up.

Sadly, I have my own tale.  For weeks, we chased a "technical switch problem" that was disconnecting callers, only to narrow it down to a particular agent who was hanging up on every third caller to improve her stats and earn a performance raise.  The only thing she attained was a swift escort to the door.

Perhaps the saying should be updated to "What gets measured, gets abused -- and what gets paid for gets abused more!"